SOUTH POINT, Ohio – The adage “build it and they will come” certainly applies to what has been going on in the past dozen years at The Point, a South Point industrial park.
The tenth shell building at the industrial park is ready for occupancy and more than 600 people are working in the buildings and at several more structures at the industrial park, said Jeremy Clay, director of the industrial park.
“We have someone interested in it,” Clay said of the 58,000-square-foot shell building that the Lawrence Economic Development Corporation has built at the 500-acre industrial park off U.S. 52. “No contracts have been signed as yet, but we’re hopeful.”
A dedication ceremony is planned at 11:45 a.m. Friday, July 1, and the development corporation has scheduled its semiannual board of trustees meeting at 10:30 a.m. Friday, July 1.
A spec building is one that is built on speculation with the hope that a buyer will be found at some point. It has worked well at The Point, Clay said.
The construction of spec buildings is appealing to prospective industry tenants because it reduces project time to compete their transition into the industrial park, Clay said.
“We work with them to adapt the structure to meet their specific needs,” he said.
“Things are very good,” Bill Dingus, executive director of the development corporation, said Tuesday. “We’re continuing to grow.”
The purpose of the shell program is to recruit business and industry to locate at the industrial park and bring jobs to the Tri-State, Dingus said.
“We’re very close to signing a contract” with a company that could bring another 40 jobs to the industrial park, he said.
“The Point industrial park is the premier site in southern Ohio,” he said. “We’re above the 500-year flood plain. We have access to the river, railroads and the highway.”
“These buildings are built right,” Dingus said. “There’s 12 inches of insulation in the roofs. They can handle 20-ton cranes.”
The development corporation self-funded the $1.2 million shell building adjacent to Engines Inc., Clay said.
The newest shell building has two 80-foot bays with 20-ton capacity in each bay. It was built by Mullins Construction Co.
“When we have something signed, we’ll start on the next one,” Clay said. “We have a lot of leads. We have people out there looking. We’re just getting started.”
From The Herald Dispatch | July 7, 2016
